Managing photos on your iPhone is crucial, whether you’re freeing up storage, preparing to sell your device, or simply decluttering your digital life. This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough on how to effectively erase photos from your iPhone, covering everything from deleting individual images to permanently removing them. We’ll also touch on managing iCloud photos and recovering mistakenly deleted memories.
Before you begin deleting photos, it’s vital to ensure you’ve backed up any images or videos you wish to keep. Deleting photos, especially when using iCloud Photos, can remove them from all your devices linked to the same Apple ID.
To check your iPhone’s storage and understand how much space photos are occupying, navigate to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. This will give you an overview of your storage usage.
Step-by-Step Methods to Delete Photos from Your iPhone
When you delete photos and videos from your iPhone, they are initially moved to the “Recently Deleted” album for a 30-day grace period. After this period, they are permanently erased. If you are using iCloud Photos, deleting photos on one device will synchronize the deletion across all devices connected to your iCloud account.
It’s important to note that if you’ve added photos to your iPhone by syncing from your computer, you cannot directly delete them from the Photos app on your device. The delete option might appear grayed out. In such cases, you’ll need to stop syncing photos from your computer to manage them directly on your iPhone.
Deleting a Single Photo or Video
- Launch the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Locate and select the specific photo or video you intend to delete.
- Tap the Trash icon located at the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Confirm your action by tapping Delete Photo.
This action will move the selected photo or video to the “Recently Deleted” album.
Deleting Multiple Photos and Videos at Once
- Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
- Tap Select at the top right corner of the screen.
- Tap on each photo or video you want to delete. Alternatively, you can drag your finger across multiple photos to select a range quickly. Selected items will be indicated with a blue checkmark.
- Once you’ve selected all the items, tap the Trash icon.
- Confirm the deletion by tapping Delete.
These selected photos and videos will now be moved to the “Recently Deleted” album.
Deleting Duplicate Photos to Free Up Space
iOS includes a feature to identify and merge duplicate photos, helping you save valuable storage space.
- Open the Photos app.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access the Utilities section.
- Tap on the Duplicates album, found under Utilities.
- Review the identified duplicates. Tap Merge to combine duplicates.
- Confirm by tapping Merge [Number] Items.
Merging duplicates keeps the highest quality version and relevant data, while the other duplicates are moved to the “Recently Deleted” album. This feature is available on iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, and later versions. The duplicate detection process runs automatically and might take some time to complete.
Recovering Deleted Photos and Videos
Accidentally deleted a precious memory? Don’t worry; you have 30 days to recover photos and videos from the “Recently Deleted” album.
- Open the Photos app.
- Swipe up to find the Utilities section and tap on the Recently Deleted album.
- If you are using iOS 16, iPadOS 16.1, or later, tap View Album and use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock the album for security reasons.
- Tap Select, then choose the photos or videos you wish to recover.
- Tap the More button (represented by three dots in a circle) at the bottom right.
- Tap Recover. To restore all items in the album, tap Recover All.
- Confirm your action by tapping Recover.
Recovered photos and videos will be restored to their original locations in your Photos Library.
Permanently Deleting Photos from “Recently Deleted”
To completely erase photos and videos and free up storage immediately, you need to remove them from the “Recently Deleted” album. Once deleted from this album, they cannot be recovered.
- Open the Photos app.
- Swipe up and tap on the Recently Deleted album under Utilities.
- Unlock the album using Face ID or Touch ID if prompted (iOS 16.1 and later).
- Tap Select, then choose the photos or videos you want to permanently delete.
- Tap the More button, then tap Delete. To delete all items in the album permanently, tap Delete All.
- Confirm permanent deletion by tapping Delete Photo.
After performing these steps, the selected photos will be permanently removed from your iPhone and cannot be recovered.
By following these instructions, you can effectively manage and erase photos from your iPhone, ensuring your privacy and optimizing your device’s storage. Remember to always back up important photos before deleting them, and understand the implications of using iCloud Photos when deleting images across devices.
